Hyaluronic acid is a linear polymeric polysaccharide in which β-D-N-acetylglucosamine and β-D-glucuronic acid are alternately bonded, is a relatively easily available mucopolysaccharide, and exhibits specific physicochemical properties and physiological properties, and hence, hyaluronic acid itself or various derivatives thereof are used as pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.
It has been known, for example, that polysulfated hyaluronic acid, which is a derivative of hyaluronic acid, has an activity of inhibiting a kallikrein-kinin system (Patent Document 1) and an activity of inhibiting phospholipase A2 (Patent Document 2), can be used as a therapeutic agent for an allergic disease (Patent Document 3), and exhibits a strong anti-inflammatory action to inflammation mediated by selectin, which is one of the adhesion molecules (Patent Document 4).
In addition, it has been reported that polysulfated oligohyaluronates having a low molecular weight such as a viscosity-average molecular weight of 10,000 or less can be used as an active ingredient for cosmetics having excellent skin permeability (Patent Document 5), and polysulfated hyaluronan oligosaccharides ranging from a tetrasaccharide to an eicosasaccharide have an anti-coagulant activity and an anti-hyaluronidase activity, and can be used as an anti-cancer agent (Non-Patent Document 1).
Patent Documents
[Patent Document 1] JP-A-1999-147901
[Patent Document 2] JP-A-1999-269077
[Patent Document 3] JP-A-1999-335288
[Patent Document 4] JP-A-1996-277224
[Patent Document 5] JP-A-1998-195107
Non-Patent Documents
[Non-Patent Document 1] Glycobiology, vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 57-64, 2001